1893] Stanford* s Personality 



especially in postponing and thus defeating the ill- 

 considered and exasperating Lodge "Force Bill" of 

 1890, which provided for Federal control of elec- 

 tions in the Southern states. 



Leland Stanford's far-reaching influence never 

 rested wholly or even mainly on wealth. Indeed, 

 during his early career he was far from affluent, and 

 a fundamental simplicity of life kept him always 

 in touch with the people. In person of massive 

 build, and rather slow-spoken though extremely 

 direct and earnest, he had a considerable fund of 

 dry humor, and a rarely beautiful smile which il- 

 lumined his otherwise impassive face. Broad- 

 minded and long-headed, he was a keen but sym- 

 pathetic and benevolent observer of human nature. 

 I never heard him speak in bitter terms of any 

 opponent. His kindness of heart was naturally Kindness 

 sometimes imposed upon by political and other f heart 

 parasites; yet even in these matters he was seldom 

 deceived, being able to penetrate the various masks 

 with which ambitious impecuniosity tries to dis- 

 guise itself. In the words of his secretary, Herbert 

 C. Nash, "he was active when other men were idle; 

 he was generous when other men were grasping; 

 he was lofty when other men were base." 



Caring nothing for creed or ceremony, he had Religious 

 nevertheless a deeply religious nature. To him, the amtudc 

 fundamentals in religion constituted the basis of 

 character. He recognized certain emotional values, 

 however, and his theological position, the result of t 

 clear thinking combined with warm feeling, might 

 have been partially defined as "Unitarian Metho- 

 dist." His conception of the goodness of God, the 

 measure of divine bounty, he put into the form of 



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